PPP172: Scale Degree Names - Piano Parent Podcast

09Dec 2019 by Shelly Davis

When students learn to play scales, they may associate them with the letters of that scale: CDEFGABC or DEF#GABC#D. Rather than limiting ourselves to a set of letters, pianists need to think in terms of location or functionality of the notes of the scale.

They might do that by numbers, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. They might do that by using solfege, a series of syllables to help associate the sounds of the notes of the scale: do re mi fa sol la ti do. You may be familiar with “Do a deer, a female deer…” which Julie Andrews sang in the Sound of Music.

As if that weren’t enough, every note of the scale has its own name and that is the topic of our discussion today.

Listen to the full episode here

Scale degree names

Each not of the scale has its own name:

1 Tonic

2 Supertonic

3 Mediant

4 Subdominant

5 Dominant

6 Submediant

7 Subtonic or Leading Tone

8 Tonic

When I first learned the scale degree names in college, I just learned to recite the names in order. I don’t recall hearing anything about their function or their role within the scale.

The way I first learned the degree names was in order from bottom to top, tonic to tonic. It made sense to me that subdominant was called that because it was “under the dominant” in the order. Subtonic made sense because it was below the tonic at the top of the list. Supertonic was just fun to say so I didn’t have any trouble remembering it was above the tonic at the bottom of the list. Mediant made sense – it was in the middle between tonic and dominant and was used with both of them to make the tonic triad. What I could not figure out was why submediant was not below the mediant. Why weren’t those two together like subdominant and dominant were?

As long as I kept the notes in the same order as when I played the major scale, submediant didn’t make any sense to me. Maybe you feel the same way. Let’s change our focus. Instead of starting and finishing with tonic, let’s put tonic in the middle.

We will talk in a bit about tonic being the center of a musical piece. If we put tonic in the middle when we list the scale degrees, they start to make a lot more sense. After tonic, the most common chords are the 4th and 5th, the subdominant and the dominant. Remember, I didn’t have a problem with them being together, their names made sense. They made even more sense when I realized that dominant is a fifth above tonic and subdominant is a fifth below tonic. The fourth scale degree isn’t simply below the dominant, it is a dominant below the tonic. It is a sub-dominant!

Once that realization hit me, mediant and submediant fell into place. Mediant is a third above tonic and submediant is a third below tonic. On either side of tonic we can place the note above and below; the subtonic below and the supertonic above and we’re done.

Scale degrees have a function

Tonic – the tonal center of music. The most restful tone. Home.

Dominant – the second most used tone after tonic. dominant hand. Vacation.

Subdominant – partners with tonic very well. You could almost think of tonic as the dominant of the subdominant but that’s getting a little outside the goal for this discussion. When playing chord progressions, you will often hear the subdominant – dominant – tonic. That makes me think of a skilled volleyball team where one player sets the ball (subdominant) to another player show spikes the ball (dominant) to earn a score for the team (tonic).

Mediant – the name itself makes sense, it is the middle tone between tonic and dominant. The mediant helps identify the type of scale or chord between major and minor. I heard Forrest Kinney say in a music workshop that the middle note gives the chord its “gender”.

Submediant – now that we’ve changed our perspective on the placement of the scale degrees, we can clearly see that submediant is in the middle between tonic and subdominant. Submediant is also the starting note of the relative minor scale.

Supertonic – we know that this is a step above tonic. In terms of chords, the supertonic chord shares two notes with the subdominant chord. It can work like that volleyball match by setting up the dominant to move to the tonic. ii – V – I is a solid way to end a piece of music. ii – V is also a useful tool when modulating from one key to another.

Subtonic – I’ve been using this term today for our purposes of understanding the names of the scale degrees but in major scales the seventh note is referred to as the leading tone. The difference is that the leading tone is only a half step below tonic while the subtonic is a whole step below. Subtonic would be found in the natural form of the minor scale.

I discussed the various forms of minor scales with Marcia Vahl, former president of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association, in episode 067.

Of course, like most interesting topics, we could dig deeper into how different composers follow the rules and functions and how other composers bend the rules and create new sounds. Talking about this subject makes me want to research some other topics for you. Maybe on a future episode we could talk more about chord functions or modulation or transposition. Do you have a theory concept you’d like to learn more about here? Leave a comment in the show notes or send me a message on Facebook or Instagram.

(Join the PPP facebook group and share your knowledge about the function of the scale degrees.)

Fun Fact

Mediant is a major third above tonic and submediant is a minor third below tonic in major keys. They are reversed in minor keys; mediant is a minor third above and submediant is a major third below. Tonic, Subdominant, and Dominant don’t change.

The “Do a deer” song from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Sound of Music” is listed at number 88 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years, 100 Songs List” which lists the top 100 songs from American movies in the 20th century. As piano players, we are rather fond of the number 88.

Crack the Christmas Code

Finally, I have a free resource that your piano kid might enjoy. I’ve taken familiar Christmas tunes and coded them out using only the scale degree numbers. Students will choose a tonic and the scale that follows it. That becomes their decoder. Then they follow the sequence of numbers to play the scale degrees and solve the puzzle – crack the code.

The songs will be tricky to decipher because there are no rhythmic indications. Without knowing the long and short of the note values, the tune is distorted like playing that word game, Mad Gab. (That is a good lesson in the importance of giving each note its full value!) Let’s play a quick round right now:

Say these three words: eggs sight head.

Blend them together until you start to hear something else.

Did you get it? Then you know how I feel about your piano kid solving the puzzle and cracking the scale degree code of these familiar Christmas tunes.

(Mad Gab solution: eggs sight head = excited!)

Crack the Code: Christmas Edition

Use your new knowledge of scale degrees to crack the codes of these familiar Christmas tunes.

Your code will be emailed to you ASAP!

Thanks for listening!

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